Advances in Antimicrobial Polymer Coatings in the Leather Industry: A Comprehensive Review

Leather products have been widely used in our daily life since ancient times. However, they are easily attacked by microbes, thus resulting in many adverse and undesirable problems, such as discoloration, unpleasant odor, and lower performance. Employing antimicrobial polymer coatings on a leather surface is regarded as a very effective strategy to address the biofouling issue. Various attempts have been made to design and fabricate antimicrobial polymer coatings to endow the surfaces with broad-spectrum antimicrobial efficacy. In this review, the commonly used and reported leather coatings are summarized, and the current advances in developing antimicrobial coatings for leather are reviewed and highlighted. Emphasis has been on providing insights regarding the novel design strategies and synthetic routines of these antimicrobial polymer coatings. Additionally, the remaining challenges in the development of antimicrobial leather coatings that should be addressed in the future are also discussed. We believe that this review will be of much benefit to the selection of suitable antimicrobial agents and fabrication approaches for developing antimicrobial leather coatings from the application standpoint.